Chocolate Glazed Baked Donuts

Recently I made and brought 25 of these chocolate glazed baked donuts to bring to share with Evy's classmates and teacher.  The teacher would do a little something special for the birthday boy or birthday girl and asked the students to sing the birthday song.  Evy wanted to share some treat with her classmates and wanted me to bake something.  I thought of this baked donuts because it was healthier for the kids, mainly made of yogurt.  I added the chocolate glazed and sprinkles because the kids loved them, looked like a donut yeah?

See my other baked donuts recipes:  Baked Raisin Donuts,  Green Tea Baked Donuts, Assorted Baked Donuts, Healthy Baked Donuts.

I double the recipe below and made about 28-30 donuts.

Ingredients:

(A)
1 cup all purpose flour
1/3 cup white granulated sugar
3/4 tsp. baking powder
3/4 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt

(B)
1 large egg
1 tub (6oz/170g) vanilla flavored yogurt
1 Tbsp. milk
1 Tbsp. canola oil

(C)
3/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips (for glazing)
Colors sprinkles as needed

Method:

1. In a big glass bowl, combine (A). Whisk thoroughly with a whisk.

2. In the center, add (B). Whisk until combine.  Use a spoon and fill the greased donuts pan, about half full.

3. Bake at preheated 400'F oven for 10 minutes. Remove with a toothpick and let cool completely on wire rack.  


4.  Melt the chocolate chips in a plate in the microwave.  Dip the cooled donut with the melted chocolate and quickly sprinkle the colors sprinkles on top.  Set it on a wire rack 1 inch apart for the chocolate to harden. 

5.  Store in air-tight container.

*Yields 12-15 healthy baked donuts*

Spicy Eggplant Top with White Chicken Bits (炒辣茄子鸡)

I had a spicy eggplant version with ground pork and this is my another version with chicken bits.  This is of course healthier than ground pork as ground pork that we get in the store usually have lots of fat in it, unless you make your own ground pork with lean pork.  Since I always have skinless and boneless chicken breasts at home, why not I just cut it into tiny bits (instead of ground chicken) like a 鸡球 to substitute the ground pork.  I also used a different sauce for this, this is the sauce I used to stir-fry my kangkong belacan or any spicy Malaysian style vegetable.  My short-cut sauce that I can easily buy it in any Asian store here.

Ingredients:

1 Japanese eggplant, cut

1/4 cup of dried shrimps, soften

Half boneless and skinless chicken breast, flatten and cut into tiny pieces/diced

2 cloves of garlic, minced

Shrimp paste in oil (from Thailand), about 2-3 tsp.

Chili paste (sambal oelek), 1 tsp. (more if you like it HOT)

Fish sauce, 1 tsp.

Sugar, 1 tsp.

Method:

1.  Mix the cut eggplant with a little salt and olive oil.  Bake in preheated 400'F oven for 10 minutes on lined aluminum foil.   Set aside.

2.  Heat up your wok with some canola oil.  When heated, add in garlic and dried shrimps, fry until fragrant without burning the garlic, add in tiny chicken bits, stir-fry until chicken is cooked.

3.  Add in eggplant, shrimps paste in oil, and fry until fragrant.  Add in chili paste, fish sauce and sugar.  Stir well and dish out to serve.

Nam Yee Chicken Pieces

Since I bought a bottle of Nam Yee (fermented red bean cubes) to make Chicken Biscuit (Kai Chai Peng), it had been left unattended.  I was not familiar with Nam Yee and that was my first bottle.  I searched the web for recipes that I could possibly use with Nam Yee and collected a few that I could try out.  One of it was fried chicken wings with nam yee. Click read more for my version of the recipe.  I hardly buy chicken wings anymore because I don't want to encourage my girls to eat chicken wings.  And the best alternative I found was chicken thigh which I would cut away the skin and fat before chopping into pieces.

We gave it a thumb up!  The cornstarch gave it a nice crunch and the nam yee gave it a unique taste.  You do get the crunch without the skin!  Next time I would try a bake version, as this will be healthier than deep-frying.

Ingredients:

6 pieces of skinless chicken thighs, cut off half of the meat and chop off the bone part into half

Marinade overnight with:

2 pieces of nam yee, smashed

1 tsp. sesame oil
1 tsp. olive oil

1/2 tsp. salt

1 tsp. sugar

Dashes of garlic powder

1 Tbsp. ShaoXing wine

1 Tbsp. cornstarch

Extra cornstarch for coating

Method:

1.  Mix chicken pieces with marinade and marinate overnight.

2.  Heat your wok with enough oil for deep-frying.  In a plate, add in some cornstarch for coating.  Take one of the chicken piece and coat with cornstarch, shake off excess flour and slowly drop into hot oil.

3.  Deep-fry on both side until golden brown and cooked through.  Drain on paper towel and serve warm.

Delicious Chocolate Banana Cupcakes

I had to put delicious up there in the title because it was delicious.  I used my marbled banana chocolate cake recipe and made it into chocolate banana cupcakes.  I invited few friends for a play date and decided to make something for coffee/tea in the afternoon.  I made this along with some chocolate chips cookies and I just realized all my snack have chocolate chips in it!

The cupcake was soft, moist, chocolaty and tasted like banana.  Truly delectable!  I added chocolate chips because my girls loved them.  I had to stop them from eating more because this was meant to be shared. ;)  At the play date, I noticed that all the kids would pick out the chocolate chips to eat first, my girls included. :)  If you like my recipes, put this on your to-try list, you won't be disappointed.

I saw this butterfly silicon cupcake cups at Target and had to buy it, it was 6 for $1 at the Dollar section, how cheap.  It was so cute too and I regretted I didn't pick up the flower silicon cups for the same price, as when I went back, it was all gone. :(  I guess you paid for quality too, this had some broken pieces and the silicon was pretty thin, but it's usable.

How it looked from the bottom. 

Ingredients:

(A)
1/2 cup + 2 Tbsp. sugar
1/4 cup canola oil (or vegetable oil)
1 large egg
1/4 cup milk (I used 1%)
2 bananas, smashed (I used frozen)

(B)
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt

(C)
1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips, melted (microwave [900watt] for 1 min 40 seconds) 


Extra chocolate chips for decoration (optional)


Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 350'F. Line a baking pan with silicon cupcake cups or line some paper cups in muffin pan. Set aside.

2. In a big bowl, hand whisk together (A). Add in (B), whisk until well blended.

3. Add in (C) and whisk to combine.

4. Use a big spoon and scoop some of the batter into the silicon cups, slightly less than 3/4 full.  Place some chocolate chips on top for decoration (optional).

5. Bake for 20 minutes or until a bamboo stick inserted in center comes out clean.

6. Cool on wire rack and store in air-tight container.
 

Chicken Noodle (Shells) Soup

Evy was diagnosed with ear infection recently.  It was her first and since she didn't complain about her ear ache, I had no way to know.  It got worst when her ear infection caused her to have high fever and coughs.  Finally we took her to see her pediatrician because we thought she might have flu or H1N1 because the fever was high like 103.7'F.  Then, it was diagnosed to be ear infection resulted from stuffy nose and caused the high fever because it was already inflamed.  She was given antibiotic for 10 days.  How magical was the antibiotic, just one dose and she was feeling much better.  I gave her the ibuprofen for the fever and pain as well.  Just like the pediatrician said, she would be herself and ready to go to school again.


I thought she was suffering from flu and wanted her to drink more fluid and lighter meal.  So, I created this chicken shells soup for her.  I only had shells pasta at home thus the used of shell pasta.  I added mixed vegetable so that she could have some veggie in her diet.  This will definitely be something I would cook when someone is not feeling well at home.

I'm sharing this noodle with Presto Pasta Nights, an event created by Ruth from Once Upon a Feast.  This week host is Aqua from Served with Love .  Do go and check out her delicious pasta round up tomorrow, March, 19th! 

Ingredients:

Olive oil

1/2 white/yellow onion, chopped

1 bay leaf

8 grape tomatoes, cut in half

1/2 roasted chicken breast (from store), shredded

1/2 cup shells 

1/2 cup frozen mixed vegetable

Italian seasonings

Salt to taste

Black Pepper

Chicken or vegetable stock

Method:

1.  In a medium size saucepan, add in some olive oil, about 1-2 Tbsp.  Add in onion and stir-fry until fragrant.  Add in bay leaf, stir-well.  Add in grape tomatoes and stir-well.

2.  Add in frozen mixed vegetable and shredded chicken breast, stir well.  Add a little salt to season the ingredients.  Add in chicken or vegetable stock, quite a lot because it is a soup and you want to cook the shell pasta too.

3.  Add in the shell pasta, stir and let it simmer until the pasta is cooked.  Season to taste with Italian seasonings and black pepper.

4.  Take out the bay leaf before serving.

Five Years Old

My blog is five years old today.  It feels like just a blink of an eye but I have been blogging for five years! It showed how fast time has passed.  I started just to share pictures of my home cook food and it blossomed into sharing my recipes to the world.

I was just sharing pictures and making friends in a food forum and one by one almost all of us started to have a food blog of our own.  Some have stop blogging through these years and some are still going strong.  Lots of fabulous blogs have emerged these past 2 years too and new food blogs have been created every day.  I don't know how long will I be blogging because no one can predict the future.  But I will still blog because it is my hobby and cooking is what I do almost every day and baking experiments in the kitchen such as creating new recipes is what I like and do best.  Furthermore, I cannot let my avid readers or fans down, I recognized some readers have been following me through all these years (before Edda was born), here I would like to say thank you to you.  For those who haven't, you are welcome to join me in Facebook by being a fan and feel free to share or drop comments and get involve.

Here to many more great years of blogging and happy 5th birthday Little Corner of Mine.  This name was created with the thought that in the whole wide world of Internet space, there is this little corner of mine which belongs to me.  But this little corner of mine has become public and hope it keeps on blossoming with your help.

Happy 5th Birthday! 

Healthy Brown Rice

My mother in-law had been telling me to eat brown rice for couple of years but had been ignored. But slowly I did manage to incorporate some brown rice into our diet by mixing it with white rice. Recently I have been seeing the light on brown rice in the United States, brown rice finally got his fame and recognition after all these years of preferring refined white rice.  Brown rice was a poor people food back then because only the rich can afford to buy the refined, processed and fragrant white rice.  When people have more money, they expect a better quality and refine food.  But by doing that, they are actually eating a less healthier food because refine food means a lot of the naturally good for you thing has been taken away by further processing.  Processed food has added coloring, preservative, trans fats and terms that I don't know how to pronounce in it.  So, now we learned that the minimally processed food is still the best for you, the best is to cook the food yourself at home with fresh grocery.  Avoid refined food and go for whole wheat, brown rice, lots of different colors of vegetable, beans, nuts, extra-virgin olive oil, fruits, herbs and spices.  It is easy to eat healthy and healthy food can be delicious.  I am switching to brown rice because it is the right time to do so but I still keep some white rice for cooking my nasi lemak and porridge.  As I don't think the nasi lemak (Malaysia fragrant coconut rice) would taste like nasi lemak if brown rice is used.  The trick in cooking brown rice is you need to add more water, almost like double the white rice water amount.  For my rice cooker, for 2 cups of white rice, I used 2.5 water level.  But for cooking 2 cups of brown rice, I need to use 4.5 water level.  Then, your brown rice will be soft and more easily digested (this is for cooking short grain brown rice).  For long grain brown rice, for 2 cups of rice, I used 3.5 cups of water.

Trust me, you will adjust to liking brown rice.  Even my girls have no problem switching, they like their brown rice.  So, what say you?  Be healthier and switch to brown rice or keep eating the expensive refined fragrant Thai white rice that is not so good for you?  You can read about all the benefits of brown rice here.  It might take some getting use to, but you will get use to it, your body will adapt to your new taste bud.  Start eating for your heart and health, just 1 cup of cooked brown rice would do the trick for a healthier you.  Some of the restaurants here have a choice of brown or white rice, I really applaud  the restaurants that took the initiative to serve healthier choice of food to its' customers. Of course, considering you have been eating healthy food along with the brown rice.  Fried chicken wings with brown rice can't really help you much when compared to stir-fry skinless, boneless white chicken with broccoli, carrot, garlic and red bell pepper and brown rice.  You know the math!

Red Beans & Black Glutinous Rice Sweet Soup

This is one delicious sweet soup I discovered by accident.  I was planning to cook some red bean soup with orange peels.  And then I remembered my mom used to add a handful of white glutinous rice with hers.  Some people added some dried longan too.  But I did not want the dried longan in my sweet soup and while trying to take out my shell pasta to cook noodle soup, I spotted my black glutinous rice.  I was thinking why not I used the black glutinous rice instead of white since it was considered to be healthier.  So, I used the black glutinous rice along with my red beans and dried orange peels and set my slow cooker to low and was really surprised at how tasty it was the next day.  It was so delicious that I would cook this way often from now on.

I love to cook red beans and black glutinous rice in my slow cooker overnight, because I will be rewarded with a soft and gluey and delicious sweet soup in the morning, without fail.   I liked mine soupy thus I added a lot more water.

Ingredients:

3/4 cup red beans, washed

1/2 cup black glutinous rice, washed

3-4 dried orange peels

Rock sugar to taste

Method:

1.  In a slow cooker, add in red beans, orange peels and black glutinous rice.  Add water until it reaches half of the slow cooker (or slightly less than half).  Turn it to low (8 hours) and go to sleep.  This is a soupy version, if you like it thicker, add less water.

2.  The next morning,  give it a stir and add in rock sugar to taste.  Stir until rock sugar dissolved and turn it to warm.  Enjoy it as morning breakfast and throughout the day.

Golden Ingots

 

Sorry for the bad pictures because it was taken at night.  I saw this Golden Ingots at Daily Affairs and decided to give it a try.  It was really an interesting idea and very suitable for Chinese New Year.  The bottom layer was fried beancurd puff (taufu pok) and topped with meat ball of sort. 

I prepared it in the afternoon and took an un-fried version.  The natural lighting made the food looks so good.  Too bad I was just too lazy to fried some just to take the finished products for this post.  I used ground pork and water chestnut for mine with my own seasonings.

The finished products, really looked like golden ingots right?  Actually my beancurd puffs was different from her, mine was the small one and frankly I had no idea how to cut it and flip it over like her.  For mine, I cut it diagonally into half and flip it over and place the meatball on top.

It was really crispy when fried.  But it will turn soft when cold.  So, serve immediately after deep-frying.  It can soak up pretty much oil too, so remember to drain on paper towel before serving.

Evy & Edda March 2, 2010

 

Sharing pictures of my girls I took recently.  The weather was really nice and they wanted to play outside so I let them played on the deck.  I let them blew bubbles and drew on the deck.

Oh, I am squeezed sister!

Evy happily drew all over our deck.  Luckily it was washable chalks, so drew and expressed all you want!  Ugh, what my little sweetie doing, still holding her peace signs.  LOL!

Evy posing for the camera!

Look at her drawing, we needed rain or snow to wash it off.

Sweet Edda posing for the camera!

It was nice to have sunny and warmer days, at least they get some vitamin D from the sun.  They spotted a pack of coyotes in our neighboring neighborhood so have to be careful with little kids playing alone (That's why they can only played on the deck).  This pack of coyotes had been spotted with pet in one of their mouths, and missing pets had been reported.  I had seen a red fox laying in my front and backyard before, lots of rabbits and a family of raccoons, no coyote yet. 

Special Rice Dish

What so special about this rice dish? Special as in the cooking method is different, it took two steps. One is stir-frying the rice first, you can add in eggs for eggs fried rice, or leave it plain, just soy sauce and garlic. I left the rice above plain because I just had eggs fried rice the day before. Then, you prepare a white sauce dish to pour it on top. The white sauce dish can be shrimps with frozen mixed vegetable, or fish with Chinese green (chai Hsin) like above, or scallops with beaten egg white, basically anything you can think of. Serve it as one dish meal. I have a similar fish recipe here if you want to take a look. 

Because of the sauce laden on the eggs fried rice, it made the rice soft and can be easily digested by elderly people or young children.

Fried Bee Hoon or Vermicelli

 

My simple lunch on Sunday.  I don't normally cooked dishes and rice on weekends.  Usually it would be something simple like fried noodle (any variety) or fried rice.  We had something special today because I saved some jicama beancurd rolls for ourselves like what you read on my last posting. Simple fried bee hoon like what you get at the night market in Malaysia can be satisfying, simple like only fried with bean sprouts. I don't know what is the charm of this simple fried bee hoon, do you know?  Or perhaps it was just something we used to have when we grew up.

Delicious fried bee hoon!  I recommend the Elephant brand bee hoon and also Wei Wei bee hoon.  These brands of bee hoon/vermicelli are thin and won't break easily when stir-frying.

I'm sharing this noodle with Presto Pasta Nights, an event created by Ruth from Once Upon a Feast. This is my first entry for the new year 2010.  Wow, it has been a while.  This week host is non-other than Ruth herself, do go and check out Once Upon a Feast delicious round up on March, 5th! It is also the Third Birthday of PPN.

This bowl served us for lunch and dinner.  Killed two birds in one stone, hooray for not having to cook dinner.

Ingredients:

1/2 packet of bee hoon/vermicelli, soak in warm water until soften

1 skinless and boneless chicken breast, slice and marinate with rice wine, soy sauce, sesame oil, white pepper and cornstarch.

1 carrot, julienned

Some snow peas, washed and cut sideway

2-3 cloves of garlic, chopped

Seasonings:

Oyster sauce

Soy sauce

A little sugar

Method:

1.  In a wok, heat up some oil.  When hot, add in chicken and stir-fry until no longer pink.  Add garlic, carrot and snow peas, fry until the veggies are cooked.

2.  Add in soften vermicelli and some water.  Mix and add in seasonings.  Mix with a chopstick until well distributed.  Fry until cooked.  Dish out and serve.